1998 Toyota Corolla Repeated front wheel bearing failures

1998 TOYOTA COROLLA
95,000 MILES • 4 CYL • FWD • MANUAL
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CLANMAC
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Left front wheel bearing has failed 3 times after 4000-5000 miles. All were installed as new parts by Toyota dealers (in 3 different cities!). Last repair included new axle. In each case car was driven mostly on highways at 60-70 mph. Have done alignment often. Little or no symptoms (grinding noise, steering wobble) before catastrophic failure. Before this series, right front wheel was damaged in parking-lot accident, but after replacing struts and straightening, no other symptoms on the right have occurred. I cannot think of any other part of the car that can cause such rapid and similar failures.
Mar 2, 2008 at 7:19 PM
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MHPAUTOS
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Hi there, there is no real reason i can think of that would cause your problem, i would look at replacing the bearing hub ass , as it my be bent causing a miss alignment of the bearings in service. if the bearings are fitted correctly and the drive shaft is tight there should be no reason for it to fail.

Mark (mhpautos)
Mar 3, 2008 at 3:04 AM
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MASTERTECHTIM
  • CAR REPAIR CONTRIBUTOR
  • 4,750 POSTS
i agree with mhpautos, i had the same problem at a car in my shop and we ended up replacing the hub and that fixed it
Mar 4, 2008 at 5:31 PM
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